Just came across this on Peegs.com. I can't vouch for the validity, but if it's true, it is an awesome story about what makes a Hoosier fan and the extreme 'coolness' of Tom Crean. Courtesy of hoosier4life, posted at peegs.com:

Was in town for the holidays, and went to the college mall to start our day. While there my 4yo son and I had the pleasure to run into Tom Pritchard & Kory Barnett what 2 great kds they are. They came over and shook my sons hand and mine and were very nice about turning around and letting us interrupt their day.

So here is the best part of the day, around 3pm my son and I went over to see if we could get into Assembly Hall and just look around and take some pictures. As we walk in we see Coach Crean sitting at the scores table doing some paperwork. I shouted down and said hi to him and stated we just wanted to look around, so he tells me to bring my son down to the floor and let him look around. As we enter the floor Coach gets up and greets us, at which time my son instantly asks if there are any basketballs to play with. Coach says sure help yourself and feel free to shoot around as long as you like we don't have practice to 4. So as we shoot around on the court Coach brings over a brand new hat and program and signs them to my son with the words always work hard Tom Crean(How Awesome). I then have my son stand at center court for a picture, and Coach sees this and asks if we want him in the picture with us, which of course we say yes to. We stayed about 20-25 mins, and as we leave he says you sure you don't wanna stay and continue shooting hoops? What great Man we have as a coach and our players are just as exceptional.

I think I have found my favorite quote of the year, and we're only 5 games into the season. John Gasaway, author of the basketball blog, Basketball Prospectus, made this statement in a recent blog entitled, "Closing a Chapter: The NCAA bans Kelvin Sampson"

That was then. The current Indiana team spent last week in Maui, playing in a tournament whose tip times are dictated by the convenience of viewers several time zones away. At the press conference after his team lost by 26 to St. Joseph's, Crean actually choked up when he talked about how hordes of red-clad IU fans had filled the stands at the Lahaina Civic Center before eight in the morning local time to support a team of freshmen and walk-ons that just hours before had been blown out by 38 points.

I submit that if you have fans that will do that, and a coach who will not only notice and salute that fact but will actually get a little verklempt when he talks about it, your program is already operating at a very high level. It's going to take a while for the final scores to catch up to the truth, but this is already an elite program.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

A young man named John received a parrot as A gift. The parrot had abad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of thebird's' mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. Johntried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying onlypolite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to"clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrotyelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier andeven ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put himIn the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked andscreamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not A Peep, was heardfor over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door tothe Freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched armsAnd said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language andactions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and Ifully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and Unforgivable behavior."John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about toask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in hisbehavior, when the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I was just doing some browsing through the message boards at Peegs.com, and came across this post from bdhman. It's pretty insightful on the lack of success that Indiana has had in college football. More often than not, especially in my lifetime, IU has seen that back end of this rivalry. (If you can call it that)

Here's his post:

The Corso Years:Corso was here 10 years (73' to 82'). Overall he was 4 (losses) and 6 wins against PU. He lost his first three games and won 4 of the next seven, including two at Purdue. His largest margin of victory was 11 points, and the largest margin of loss was 21 point, although 3 of the losses were by 7 or less points. I was a student trainer for IU football during the 75', 76' and 77' seasons. I can tell you first hand that Corso mentioned Purdue everyday to his team and regularly challenged his players with "what have you done to today to prepare yourself to beat Purdue?". He used to say that if wanted to keep his job he had to win two games -- homecoming and Purdue. His results were mixed, but he and his his teams were always fired up to beat Purdue.

The Mallory years:Mal was here 13 years. He was 6 (wins) and 7 (losses) vs. PU. Like Corso, he lost his first 3 games, and then went 6-4 including 3 wins at PU. Mal got blown out once -- in 95' we lost 51 to 14. He had four losses of 7 points or less. Plus, his team BEAT PU 52 to 7 in 88' at PU (oh, for those days...). From day one Mal got it, and his teams always were ready for PU (except 95').

Cameron years:Cam was 1 (win) and 4 (losses) vs. PU. We lost three times by 43, 45 and 28 points. We also lost by 6 and won by 6 in 01'.

Dinardo years:Gerry lost 3 times to PU. The first two were close, but the last game we got bombed 63 to 24. It sure seemed like the players had given up by that point.Hep and Lynch years:You know the history here. Last year was magical, today was in keeping with all of the other disasters going on in the US. We got bombed.

Overall, we have have only won twice in the last 12 years. Maybe this is why the TV announcers said that Purdue considers ND their rival, not IU.

Simon recorded this 3 months after returning from South Africa, where he worked with local musicians and experimented with their sounds. At the time, South Africa was divided by Apartheid, a policy that separated blacks and whites, and many musicians were boycotting the country as a result (check out the Songfacts on "Sun City"). Simon's visit went over very well, and including South African musicians on the album gave it a distinctive sound that helped make it a huge hit.

This originally charted at US #44 in Oct, 1986. It was reissued with greater promotion in March, 1987 and hit #23.

This was the first single off Graceland, which won a Grammy for Album Of The Year in 1988.

The African Rhythms were supplied by the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon would later produce 2 albums for the group.

This was Simon's first hit since 1980, when "Late In The Evening" went to #6 in the US.

Al Gore used this while he was running for Vice President in 1992. Simon has played at various Democratic fund raisers.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Congratulations. My favorite winery, Mallow Run, was awarded the Indiana's Governors Cup at the 2008 Indy International Wine Competition. According to the web, the Governor's Cup is awarded to the "Best Indiana Winery" as determined by overall judging of wines at the Indy competition.

What a year it's going to be? IU basketball. I'm pretty excited with the win over Northwestern State. Yep, I said it. It's going to be a long season, but it is resulting in some great articles. My favorite comments so far are from Eamonn's analysis in his article "The Morning After". Here's a few of my favorite comments:

On recognizing the new players,"After about five minutes last night, I had to admit something to myself. I didn’t know who was who. It’s sad, I know, but I doubt that I’m alone here, and I hope it’s not too bold of me to admit it. It took me a second to figure out that Verdell Jones was No. 12, that that wasn’t Devan Dumes, that Dumes was the off-guard wearing No. 33, and who is that little dude with the Rip Hamilton facemask on? That’s not Finkelmeier, is it? And oh my God is that Tijan Jobe?!"

On Tom Crean's enthusiasm for the job, "The best basketball coaches are salesmen, and Tom Crean could sell me a ticket to Kelvin Sampson: The Broadway Musical. He’s done the same sales job on his team. Effort will not be a problem this year, at least not anytime soon."

On the team's attitude and effort, "They are going to play hard. They are going to have good attitudes. All of that. Even when they’re not playing with a good attitude it will seem that way, because you can’t have worse attitudes than last year’s team, and as long as Matt Roth doesn’t smoke a crack pipe at midcourt and punch a cheerleader in the face, pretty much anything will seem like an improvement."

On Tijan Jobe, "Oh, Tijan. Tijan Tijan Tijan. God bless him. He looks incredibly interested in playing hard basketball, in rebounding, that sort of thing. That’s probably the nicest thing that can be said about his basketball ability right now."

Personally, Indiana's going to be fine. They have a good coach. As fans, we all have low expectations for this season. What we want is a team that plays hard, hustles, makes other team's beat us? That's what we are going to get. I just can't wait until we beat Purdue this year.

Friday, November 14, 2008

So...yesterday was quite a day. First, it was FULLY LOADED NACHOS day....the biggest baddest nacho 'treat' at Taco Bell. Being the first day, it was hectic. We went through more taco salad shells then I've ever seen us sell. The FL Nachos are good. They are essentially a nachos bell grande served in a Taco Salad with all sorts of goodies on top. You get two servings of sour cream, fiesta salsa, guacamole, shredded three-cheese blend, and red strips on top. If portioned correctly, this meal is great (although most doctors would cringe at all the fried toppings included).

Anyways, the day went pretty well. Right at the end of my day, I get a call and the closing manager could not make it. So being the opportunist that I am and all ready having today (Friday) and Saturday off, I jump at the opportunity to close. It allows me to trade my schedule on Sunday for a full weekend off....hallelujah! When word spread throughout the team, they got pretty happy because they really like to work with me. In fact, if you were in the restaurant, you would likely have heard a few songs from Grease 1, Grease 2, and several other great sing-alongs. But either way, they were excited and we had a pretty good close. Even if it was 17 hours into my workday, we still were pretty good. We were fast (Drive thru wait was only about 2 minutes), clean (we were even able to reach all those forgotten spots like the mop sink), and efficient (we managed labor to perfection).

Ahh, but the stories not over, today I wake up to a text message. My weekend plans have been dashed. My boss still wants me to cover Sunday...I don't know about this. I think I've earned my time. We'll see.

But, early this morning, when I got home, I had this cute picture waiting in my inbox. Stacy shared it with me from LOLcats...it's hilarious.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Here's a picture from earlier this summer. Stacy and I visited our local winery, Mallow Run. It was very hot, and she decided to take a break from the summer sun and sit in the shade. While she was resting, I took this great photo. Enjoy!!!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hey, it's time for a little Americana. Let's get back to our roots. It's almost Friday. I've just purchased me a bottle of wine. Some good, "rhubarb wine" from Mallow Run. So for all my readers, this is for you

John Mellencamp - Sweet Love

The first single from John's new album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, is the track "My Sweet Love"!

Enjoy!!!!

Ahh, what the hell....You can't listen to Mellencamp without listening to Jack and Diane..so hear it is

Apparently, current first dog, Barney, is having some issues coping with the changing administration. According to Yahoo, Reuters political reporter Jon Decker was bitten by Barney today and had to be treated by the White House physician.

Here's the scene, Decker just finished his interview. He's getting up to leave as the Barney and his handler enter the room. As he's reaching down to pet Barney, he gets nipped on the finger.

Decker's reply, "That's not good."

My guess as to what Barney's reply would be, "What till I see that Obama".

Anyways, I thought that was an interesting story. Then the news cut to some story about Palin. Blah, blah, blah!

Bloomington, Indiana - The Indiana University Athletic Department has announced that it has begun selling newly available season tickets to the general public through the IU Athletic Ticket Office. Single game tickets also are available through all Ticketmaster locations.

IU has sold out of its dedicated allotment of tickets for public renewals, faculty and staff. The newly available tickets come from the inventory of unused student tickets. However, the department will continue to offer student season tickets for sale throughout the campaign.

"As I said earlier this year about our players, this is a great opportunity for someone who maybe hasn't had the opportunity before to become involved with our program from the ground up," said first-year Coach Tom Crean. "We have been overwhelmed with support from throughout the state and we are hopeful that this opportunity will give many a chance to become more intimately involved with this year's team as we look toward the future. We look forward to Assembly Hall filling up game after game like it has always been."

Season tickets are on sale for $451 for the general public and $210 for students. Single game tickets are available for $23 for the general public and $15 for students. Tickets for Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois are $38 for the general public.

Single game floor tickets ($30) also are available for games against Northeastern (Dec. 22), Lipscomb (Dec. 28) and Michigan (Jan. 7)

To order season tickets, contact the IU Athletic Ticket Office at 866-IUSPORTS or visit IUHoosiers.com. To purchase single game tickets prior to the day of the game, visit Ticketmaster.com.

From Lenny9987: Who doesn't love Phyllis? She may be a little quiet at times but when she has something to say, she makes it count. Don't underestimate this little lady. I don't own The Office, NBC does.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Ahh, let's start this post of with some Rolling Stones for a wonderful, fall Saturday.

Okay, now, that's a cool song! Anyways, I'm not really at my most productive self today. The blogger at Lifehack.org would be pretty disappointed in me today.

Today's task....cleaning and storing the grill for winter.

I'm kind of sad, because my grill season is officially over and I only made it four recipe's into my grill book, but I'm also proud of my cooking skills. This year with my new 16,000 btu grill, I've been able to do some kick-a** ribs, some awesome burgers, and even started perfecting some steaks. I can't wait to break it out next year.